Agreed if the employees sleeps only 2 hrs a night..theres something really wrong in the management. I guess the person looses its ability to work on innovation if he/she doesnt take proper rest. Surprised that Samsung made such a comment. Its more emotional than trying to prove a point.

Sorry, but I call b.s. on the statement that they were "sleeping as little as two hours a night." To the extent it has any truth, it reflects gross negligence on the part of management if they had knowledge of this and allowed it. Not only is it neglectful of the health of their employees, but it is detrimental to their own desire to produce a quality product on schedule and on budget.
The effects of sleep deprivation are well-known and include, among other things, confusion, lapses in memory and inattentiveness. Chronic sleep deprivation can make a brilliant person seem like a complete idiot -- simple mathematics can become difficult, steps in a routine procedure can be overlooked, and higher-order cognitive reasoning skills disappear.
The product these engineers designed was a complex system, and when finished, it worked as intended. It could not have been designed by a bunch of people who were reduced to the status of imbeciles due to lack of adequate sleep. Sure, we've all experienced an all-nighter, or a night of only a couple hours of sleep. Most humans are pretty worthless the next day after such a night. A few might be able to sustain 2 or 3 nights in a row of such abuse -- but not night after night on a sustained basis.
If I'm wrong and it's true that they did this to themselves, then it's a good thing they were only designing a cell phone and not something where safety of the end user was at stake!

Rick,
Great coverage. This in the end brings out the peripheral issues as well: when large companies get large they act like people from the society around them (turn wars, rivalry... need to dominate their space). They are essentially a microcosm of society around them but driven by business consideration which at some level translate to the least common denominator personal needs of a group (shareholders, owners, management, employees...).
Almost every company I know benchmarks their products and designs against the market leader or at least the top 5 players. Strategic marketing is looking at the competition all the time. The coverage gives a lot of insight to people who are not familiar with the overall process.
Work life balance wise and the comments about particular multi-national companies...as somebody I know once said: "every organization is as much a meritocracy as human nature allows."

These are the same complaints levied against Japanese companies until not too long ago. I have little sympathy. Somehow Americans think that everyone should speak English. If you don't want to feel excluded learn Korean. As for the home office thing, what about US companies installing Americans at the head of their foreign subsidiaries? And let's not kid ourselves, non negotiable home office directives are par for the course. Do you think that employees at foreign branches of Apple are allowed to "think different". particularly when it comes to challenging Steve Jobs dogma?

I dislike apple and the majority of their design and ui decisions. This is driven largely by their rigid insistence of making you behave in a way that they (aka Steve Jobs) thinks is "right". But as engineers we also need to be objective and note that the the Samsung Galaxy line is not cheaper nor more accessible than the iGizmo line.
As for the trial, this is the same tired look and feel argument that Apple tried with Microsoft decades ago and ultimately lost. The difference now is that they have $100B in the bank and seem inclined to piss it all away if necessary.
Last but not least, the whether the copying was intentional or not should not be of primary importance. The issue should be whether Apple has anything that is protect able. White icons on a green background? This is desperate. Perhaps the US Highway Administration should sue Apple, after all they have been using flat white signs on a green background with rounded corners since at least the 1950s.
Remind me to never give Apple any business ever again. Next time my daughter wants an iPhone she is paying for it herself...

Interesting to see the first-hand account of an engineer. I've no doubt that Samsung and Apple both are very demanding companies. I've certainly read as much about Apple. Not necessarily fun places to work.
Me, I don't like to be overly rushed, because that's when people do mediocre work. But some of that is personalities, so it's hard to generalize.
I have some co-workers who seem unable to get their act together unless they have a looming deadline. Hard to work with that type of person, for me. Because it invariably puts ME in a bind, as they always find themselves.
As to "home office say," I would find that exceedingly difficult "up with which to put."